Tag Archives: iPod

It was Apple Announcement Day on September 9, 2014. At Flint Center in Cupertino, the location where the late Steve Jobs unveiled the Mac 30 years ago, Apple CEO Tim Cook and other executives announced a slew of products and services which for all intents and purposes can be considered the new era for Apple. Having dominated the premium smartphone market and the tablet market with their iPhones and iPads, Apple is moving into wearables with their Apple Watch as well as into facilitating payments with their new service, Apple Pay. Oh, and they announced two new iPhones: the iPhone 6 with a size of 4.7″, and the iPhone 6 Plus with a size of 5.5″.

Apple Watch

Even though they announced the iPhones first, it was clear that Apple officials wanted to devote a lot of time to their new device in a brand new category. The name eschews the long-running “i” naming scheme, which is interesting by itself. The Apple Watch is not circular in shape like the just announced Moto360 and like most wrist watches, but instead, it is a rectangular touch screen watch with a flavor of iOS called Watch OS powering it. It comes in two sizes and its belt/strap is easily switchable, potentially creating a huge 3rd party opportunity for the same.

Apple WatchApple Watch EditionApple Watch Sport

Although the Apple Watch requires an iPhone to use the GPS and WiFi to measure distances and such, it does have its own sensors to measure not just steps but also the intensity of your workouts. Besides keeping extremely accurate time (it continuously checks the global standard time), it also provides customizable watch faces which are not just skins. These watch faces provide further interactions and customizations, based on the specific face. For example, an “earth” based face could then provide the alignment of planets at that given time for that particular location, or another face that can show the next appointment on the calendar.

Apple Watch Faces

Of course, the big news here is the interaction mode. The Apple Watch has a “Digital Crown” which looks very much like the crowns on regular wrist watches. Instead of winding the watch, the Digital Crown helps in navigation: scrolling up and down, zooming in and out, etc. In addition, there is a button below the Digital Crown which acts similar to the Home button on iPhones, iPods and iPads, in that it returns you to the main home screen. The other innovation touted in the Apple Watch is the display, which is made in a way that it can detect the difference between a touch and a press. Depending on what it is, the Watch OS and the apps therein behave and react differently. The Apple Watch features a heart rate sensor which uses infrared and visible-light LEDs and photodiodes to detect your heart rate. It uses induction charging via a new magnet-based charger. Curiously, no mention was made of the expected battery life of the Apple Watch.

Apple Watch Sensors

Apple is also touting a new development kit called WatchKit which will enable developers to build (or extend) apps and utilize the new gestures as well as interaction modes. For example, actionable notifications are supported, but because of the much smaller real estate on the screen, they will need to be re-tooled.

Apple Watch Home Screen AppsApple Watch Messages

Finally, Apple officials spent quite some time going over Digital Touch which is a new form of communication delivered in Apple Watch. With Digital Touch, you can doodle on the watch face and your friend can see it being drawn in real time and reply back with their own doodle. Digital Touch can also be used as a simple walkie-talkie. It also offers a way to just tap on the screen and send the tap to your friend, and finally, Digital Touch also allows you to capture your heartbeat for a few seconds and send that exact same pulse to your friends. I don’t know how much of this is gimmicky or truly useful but given the new paradigm, I suppose the message here is that the opportunity is endless.

Apple Watch Digital Touch

Apple Pay

The other new category Apple entered is in the mobile payments. With Apple Pay, Apple now provides a way for customers of its phones to pay in stores and online without having to enter credit card and billing/shipping address details.

Apple Pay

Apple Pay works with NFC in the real world (offline) and contactless payment processing machines. The NFC technology, combined with Touch ID, enable a seamless transaction without having to fumble around your wallet or purse looking for the right card and then signing papers and such.

Set up Apple Pay PassbookSet up Apple Pay by Camera

Apple Pay works by setting up one’s various credit and debit cards (American Express, MasterCard and Visa have signed up in the US) in Passbook. This wallet is also made available to 3rd party apps securely. Neither the 3rd party nor the merchant has access to the actual card number or details. Instead of actually sending the credit or debit card numbers, Apple Pay instead sends a Device Account Number which is in turn stored in a new Secure Element chip only available in the new iPhone 6 devices and Apple Watch. Oh yes, the Apple Watch will support Apple Pay. Which means, you can pay using your watch and not even remove your phone from your pocket.

Apple Watch Apple Pay

Besides the 3 big card networks, Apple has signed up most of the big banks that issue these credit cards and has also partnered with 220,000 stores which will be set up to accept Apple Pay payments sometime this Fall.

iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus

The event started off with the introduction to the new phones. As expected and heavily leaked, Apple finally jumped to a larger screen iPhone but instead of introducing one new form factor, they went with two completely new form factors this year. iPhone 6 is the 4.7″ device and iPhone 6 Plus (a very Microsoft-ian name, dare I say!) sports a 5.5″ screen.

iPhone 6iPhone 6 Plus

Besides the size, the screen resolutions also differ: the iPhone 6 is at 1334×750 and the iPhone 6 Plus is at 1920×1080. The iPhone 6 Plus has a bigger battery and more importantly, it has Optical Image Stabilization which may support even better low-light pictures. Both the models now support faster LTE and wireless AC standard. Both have new camera sensors, although the megapixel count remains at 8MP. (I know, I know, it is not all about the megapixels, but I just wanted to make a mention.) The video camera in both the models now supports slow motion video at 240fps. Both the models also feature new processor and motion sensor chips, A8 and M8. In a surprise move, Apple went with 16GB, 64GB and 128GB storage models and not 32GB, 64GB and 128GB. iPhone 6 is priced at $199, $299, $399 respectively for those capacities, with a 2-year contract, and the iPhone 6 Plus is $100 higher across the board. Given the larger screen and the obsession at Apple of single-handed use, Apple introduced “Reachability” a feature which brings the top part of the screen halfway down so that one can reach it with their thumb. This is invoked by gently double-tapping the home button. Both the models also now include a barometer so the phone can track your elevation which can be helpful in fitness tracking apps. The new iPhones also support WiFi calling when the carrier supports it, so presumably one can start a call in the car on cellular and once they are home or in the office, switch to WiFi seamlessly to continue the call over WiFi. This is beneficial for those who are not on unlimited calling plans or if they have poor cellular signal in places they want to make a call from.

iPhone 6 Time Lapse Video Feature

All of these announcements are huge in their own ways, but regardless of what you think about each of the products or service, it is clear that these are Tim Cook’s creations. The Steve Jobs era has been completely transitioned to the Tim Cook era. We may very well look at Apple Watch in a few years and realize it was the big turning point for Apple. The iPhone is clearly the center of the Apple universe, which is astounding because it is only seven years old as a product. Personally, I have stuck to the “s” releases of iPhones: 3GS because it introduced video (Blackberry had that forever!), 4S because of the much improved camera and speed/processor, and 5s because of Touch ID. I will continue that and wait for the 6S Plus next year. How about you?

During the September keynote, Apple previewed its ad for the new iPods. Today, Apple has posted that ad and it is called “Bounce.” The ad features the new fifth-generation iPod touch, iPod nano and shuffle and highlights the new colors offered. Willy Moon’s song “Yeah Yeah” accompanies the ad.

Skype users on iOS devices should be on the look out for malicious users who intend on stealing their address book.

A vulnerability affecting Skype 3.01 on iOS devices, including the iPod Touch and iPhone, gives an attacker the ability to secretly upload the entire contents of your address book. The hole is due to a non-validated input field in the client, instead of the contents being displayed to the user, they are executed. Coupling XSS with sandbox permissions that do not allow for fine-tuned access control within apps, provides a way for an attacker to steal the contents of an unsuspecting user’s address book.

Skype has been criticised numerous times over identical vulnerabilities in their desktop software, that allowed for remote code to be executed on a victim’s computer. The flaw is one that Skype has had reported numerous times, fixed numerous times, yet they have not completely audited the applications before release.

Phil has detailed the attack performed against an iPhone 4 running iOS 4.3.5 and has indicated that the vulnerability was reported to Skype over a month ago. Hopefully a fix is in the works, but more importantly, hopefully Skype will perform a full check instead of simply throwing input sanitising on the vulnerable text field.

The iPod was first introduced in 2001, and a few months after someone registered the iPods.com domain name. Even though somebody squatted the domain and wasn’t putting it to use, Apple hadn’t shown interest to acquire the domain until recently. A month ago, TechCrunchreported that finally after 9 years Apple was interested in acquiring iPods.com. In order to do so, they filed a complaint for the domain with ICANN in June. Now, it seems that Apple has finally won the dispute over iPods.com with a World Intellectual Property Organization ruling granting Apple control of the domain. WIPO’s David Cairns has ordered the previous holder MP3Gold.com to hand the domain over.

In the past, Apple has used legal measures to acquire a domain name. Their recent acquisition was iCloud.com, but Apple usually prefers buying the addresses instead. Shortly after the original’s iPhone launch, Apple acquired iPhone.com and also managed to acquire iPhone4.com and WhiteiPhone.com days before.

Currently, Apple does not own several domains. For example, iPad.com, iPhone5.com, Macs.com, and many other domains that aren’t being used. Judging by Apple’s recent actions, it seems that they will plan to acquire these unused domains at some point. As of today, iPods.com still redirects to MP3Gold.com.

Like many bright politicians, Senator Kruger keeps an eye out for any potential problems that might kill any future voters. He was quoted by the New York Times as saying “We’re taught from knee-high to look in both directions, wait, listen and then cross. You can perform none of those functions if you are engaged in some kind of wired activity.”

Did we elect officials like Kruger to protect us from common every day activities, instead of doing things like balancing the state budget? It’s possible that the Senator believes that the $100 fines collected from violators of this new law might offset the current $64.8 billion dollar New York state debt.

These fines might provide the money needed to hire more police. The additional police could patrol the crosswalks so that they can collect even more fees. The average New York municipal policeman’s salary is about $60, 000. The cop would only have to bust about 600 people a year to break even. That sounds reasonable, right?

If this law is passed and deemed successful, maybe we’ll start seeing even better laws. Should senators chew gum while walking?

Just as you would expect with any modern smartphone sold nowadays, continued support is in very high demand, namely software support and updates. Unlike Android, iOS has very controlled hardware that it runs on and only devices sanctioned (read: designed and built) by Apple get the thumbs up for iOS. This gives Apple the great ability to control the user experience and control what features a user has access to and what they don’t.

With the update of iOS 4.3b2, developers should expect a slew of new features including the ability to create a personal hotspot on the device (for WiFi tethering) and some new API for gesture control. Apple has indicated that end-users may not be getting gesture support once 4.3 goes live and it is mainly for developers to test their applications, implement gesture support or ensure that their code does not conflict with any changes.

You can register as a developer (you’ll need to fork over $99 while doing that) to get access to this beta directly from Apple and you’ll receive access to the firmware images that support the Apple TV, iPad, iPhone 4 and 3GS as well as the 3rd and 4th generation iPod Touch. As always, the XCode and Apple SDK are available to download as well.

Most users will want to stay on the carrier supported release, since this is technically beta firmware and is aimed at developers who want to get a jump on gesture controls and any other API calls that Apple has added in.

It’s rumoured that the 3rd beta will be released within a few weeks and should be the final seed before iOS 4.3 is release sometime in February.

It was just yesterday that we told you about Geohot making a comeback to the iTouch jailbreaking scene with limera1n. Today, Geohot has released his latest jailbreaking tool limera1n. The application will allow users to jailbreak iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch 3G, iPad (3.2), iPhone 4 and the iPod Touch 4G running on iOS 4.0/4.1. limera1n is an untethered jailbreak (thanks to comex) which will jailbreak your iTouch device for life. As of now, the application is available only for Windows with the Mac version coming soon.

The application should technically also support Apple TV. However, due to the release of limera1n the Chronic Dev team had to push back their release of GreenPois0n. As stated earlier– limera1n and GreenPois0n use different boot rom exploits to jailbreak the various iTouch devices from Apple.

The Chronic Dev team did this because they did not want to waste’ the SHAtter’ boot rom exploit and let Apple win the cat and mouse’ game.

Nearly three months ago, we had reported that Geohot has decided to ditch the iTouch jailbreak scene. Now Geohot is all set to make a comeback to the iTouch jailbreaking scene with his latest tool Limera1n. This new tool from Geohot will be able to jailbreak all the various iTouch devices including the iPhone 4. Limera1n will be released on 10/11/10 i.e. on October 11; exactly a year after blackra1n was released.

However, the Chronic-Dev team is not happy with this move from Geohot. The Chronic Dev team will also be releasing a new jailbreaking tool GreenPois0n. The tool will be able to jailbreak all the iTouch devices running on iOS 4.1 and will be released on 10/10/10 at 10:10:10. Both Limera1n and GreenPois0n will jailbreak all the iTouch devices for life using boot rom exploits. Geohot’s Limera1n will be using a different boot rom exploit than the SHAtter’ exploit being used by Chronic Dev team.

The Chronic Dev team wants Geohot to save his new boot rom exploit for the next generation iPhone and iPad.

Well GizmoRip is a software which will allow you to import your music and playlists from your iPhone, iPod or iPad back to your computer or even import it directly to your iTunes.

GizmoRip will help you to recover all of your favorite music and videos in just a few quick steps, import your playlists directly into iTunes. It supports the latest version of iTunes (10.0.1) and is absolutely free to use.

Another good use of this software would be to copy music from another iDevice to your computer and then sync it with another device.

Techie Buzz Verdict

GizmoRip takes away a major headache of synching your iDevice with your computer or iTunes and is a definite download. It supports the iPhone, iPod Touch and other variants and also the iPad.

To top it GizmoRip is absolutely free, which makes this a must download and one of our highly recommended software.

Apple has been famous for its product lineup. The Mac, iPod, iPad, iPhone has given Apple fanboys the iOwn drive. However, sometimes, Apple goes too far in upsetting people by making claims like “Safari is the faster web browser ever” and the “iPhone 4 has no signal issues” even when people point these out and show them. Put simply Apple just does not care because it knows the temptation it can churn up with its products.

Rants apart, here is some more badassery from Apple. Apple owns a successful range of products as the iPod and now, it wants to claim the word “pod”. Sector Labs, a startup has been restrained from using the word pod in their product “Video pod” and Apple has taken the matter to the court. Apple has presented an 873-page document detailing on its claim of the word pod.

Ana Christian, Sector Labs’ lawyer told the Wired magazine,

What I’m hoping to do with this case is to really reach a lot broader an audience and make it so entrepreneurs and small businesses can use the English language as they see fit in branding their products.

However, Sector Labs is not the first firm Apple is taking on with regard to the use of “pod”. With time, Apple is getting better at annoying small businesses. However, claiming dictionary words goes way out of line. Going by this trend, up next is “pad”, “phone” and everything i.